Health department ‘should steer bill’

Liberal Democrats are supporting calls for a revised mental health
bill driven by the Department of Health and not the Home
Office.

It follows a proposal in the draft mental health bill to detain
indefinitely people with untreatable personality disorders who have
committed no crime. The move has provoked outrage among
professionals and service users.

Lib Dem mental health spokesperson Sarah Teather told an event
organised by mental health charity Mind that people with mental
health problems committed only a small number of violent
crimes.

It is understood that a battle between the Home Office, which wants
to retain the measures in the bill, and the Department of Health,
which is under pressure to remove them, is likely to be won by the
DoH.

Floyd Porter, head of the mental health team at Christian Kahn
solicitors, told the event that the government’s original proposals
had shifted the balance too far towards “the supposed protection of
the public”.